World Environment Day: Biodegradable tableware manufactured from agricultural waste is making inroads into the market

how biodegradable tableware made from agricultural waste is getting popular

How about a tall glass of iced pineapple juice and a flavoured straw as an appetiser? Thanks to edible tableware and biodegradable containers made from agro-residue, you might be able to eat from a plate and then the plate as well. Cups made from rice bran, rice husk and rice straw, plates and takeaway containers made of apple prunes and pineapple leaves are just some of the options open to those who want to say no to single-use plastics.

Rice husk, bran and straw, wheat bran, pineapple waste, apple prunes, banana waste and the like are getting converted into biodegradable products.

Qudrat, an eco-friendly tableware brand, operating from KINFRA in Thiruvananthapuram, makes biodegradable plates from rice husk, rice bran and rice straw, non-edible straws from coconut leaves, edible straws in five flavours and spoons in two flavours. Biodegradable plates with compartments, tumblers and bowls are next in line.

At Thooshan, a biodegradable tableware brand based at Angamaly near Kochi, the product range includes plates made of wheat bran, and edible straws made of rice flour. Their latest product is cake base board from wheat bran. By July, the brand will have cutlery and container boxes that make use of rice bran.

“Companies are keen on manufacturing sustainable, eco-friendly tableware. There is tremendous interest in this area and we have been getting enquiries from across the country,” says C Anandharamakrishnan, director of the National Institute for Interdisciplinary Science and Technology (NIIST), at Pappanamcode in Thiruvananthapuram. NIIST, which comes under the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) laboratory, has been providing the technology to those interested in manufacturing biodegradable products.

CSIR-NIIST has been at it since 2018. “We provide the technology and the companies do the research and development according to their need,” Anandharamakrishnan adds.

CSIR-NIIST has handed over the technology to 14 firms, including Thooshan and Qudrat. “Rice and wheat processing mills produce a lot of agri-waste. While Himachal Pradesh has to deal with apple prunes, in Madhya Pradesh waste is generated during processing of pulses,” says Dr Anjineyulu Kothakota, scientist with CSIR-NIIST.